Studio Basics

One of the things that separate a good engineer from a great one is the quality of the headphone mix that he or she provides for their musicians. So, here are a number of things to consider when creating your next headphone mix, especially as it pertains to singers.

In the world of multichannel audio, connectivity has always been one of those subjects that’s often glossed over, but is too important to ignore. Here's a rundown of some of the current array of common connections and protocols that you'll find in your studio.

Phase shifting, flanging, and chorusing are pretty standard pieces in every engineer’s effects arsenal today, but while they may seem to offer a similar effect, they’re certainly not the same. By the end of this article you can win studio bets by what you know about phase shifting, flanging, and chorusing, as well as a little bit of doubling and the Haas Effect thrown in.

Even expert mastering engineers can only accomplish so much, and it’s largely dependent on the raw materials they’re given to work with. With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the top mistakes people make in preparing their mix for mastering, according to Pete Doell, a veteran engineer of Universal Mastering Studios West.

These days, owning an analog tape machine is somewhat akin to driving a classic car, with ongoing maintenance, scarcity of parts, and exotic fuel (analog tape) that's expensive and hard to find. So while a handful of top studios still offer those classic spinning reels (and the engineers to maintain them), the good news for the rest of us is that there are now more convenient ways to achieve that classic magnetic sound.

Has your mix ever sounded “not quite right?" You might be experiencing phase cancellation, a phenomenon that makes certain frequencies vanish from your mix. This Studio Basics article will help you understand phase — what it is, why it matters, and what it means to be out of it.

When most people think of stereo recording, the first thing that comes to mind is a matched pair of microphones, arranged in a coincident (XY) pattern. But while XY microphone recording is the most obvious method, it's not the only game in town. The Mid-Side (MS) microphone technique offers some dramatic advantages—a malleable stereo field, and true mono compatibility.

Data compression schemes like MP3, FLAC, AAC, and other relatives have fundamentally changed music as we know it. Daniel Keller breaks down the different formats, and how data compression can change the music you make, and how you listen to it.

Reverb is arguably one of the most often-used effects in modern recording, and probably one of the most misunderstood. It’s interesting to consider the fact that, as with so many things, we’ve spent decades perfecting different ways to imitate something that occurs on its own in nature.